India A win tri-series as Sooryavanshi hammers fastest List A half-century

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 15, smashed 94 off 29 balls for India A vs Sri Lanka A Fastest List A fifty ever: Reached 50 in 11 balls, breaking Kaushalya Weeraratne’s 12-ball record from 2005Ball-by-ball carnage: First 11 balls went 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 0, 6, 4, 4, 6, 6 – five fours, five sixes, one dot. Final tally: 10 fours, 8 sixes. Dismissed by Sri Lanka A captain Sahan Arachchige, 6 short of what would’ve been the joint-fastest List A hundred. Sooryavanshi came into the final on the back of four starts that yielded 117 runs. But the focal point of his tour had been his scrap with the Sri Lanka A players at the end of a tense group fixture four days ago. Amid talks of a reprimand and a fine, Sooryavanshi returned to let his bat do all the talking this time. His turbocharge laid the foundation of an India A innings that stuttered at different times to eventually post 377 for 9, when 400-plus looked well on the cards. That they finished with what they did was largely down to Anukul Roy, who, like Sooryavanshi, also comes from the town of Samastipur. Roy smashed 39 off just 15 balls, courtesy four sixes, to give the India A innings a late lift after they had slumped to 334 for 8, and were in danger of being bowled out with a few overs to spare. As it turned out, that wasn't Roy's only contribution. He also picked up two vital wickets with his left-arm spin, including that of the set Vijaykanth Viyaskanth to break a 77-run seventh-wicket partnership that kept Sri Lanka A's hopes alive. India A 377/9 in 50 overs. Sooryavanshi’s blitz set up 400+ before middle-overs dip Other contributions: Tilak Varma 67 off 90, Anukul Roy 39* off 15 with 4 sixes gave late liftSri Lanka A 311 all out in 47.1 overs – lost by 66 runs. SL fight: Vanuja Sahan 62, 77-run 7th wicket stand with Viyaskanth 39, but RRR kept climbing. Bowling: Yash Thakur 3 wkts, Vipraj Nigam 3 wkts, Anukul Roy 2 wkts sealed it. Sooryavanshi's hitting, especially over extra cover on the up - it was reminiscent of the shot he hit off the very first delivery he faced in the IPL last year - was mighty impressive. As was his ability to play on the minds of the bowlers by getting inside the line of short deliveries to pull or help them over the leg-side boundary. The one shot that exhibited Sooryavanshi's range, and presence of mind, was the ramp over the wicketkeeper off a delivery from Kugathas Mathulan, whose lengths he had struggled to get underneath in a gun Super Over the last time they met. Thakur aside, India A debutant Ashok Sharma was mighty impressive with his speeds, even though he got taken apart for runs in his first spell. While speed guns were absent, Ashok repeatedly hustled batters with his pace and late movement. He also dismissed Sadeera Samarawickrama, one of Sri Lanka A's most accomplished batters, for a 44-ball 52 just when he was beginning to shift gears. From there on, Sri Lanka A kept losing wickets until a late flourish from Sahan kept them alive, only for those hopes to be dashed by India A's spinners. Bottom line: On what might be his last game as an uncapped player, Sooryavanshi hit the fastest List A fifty in 11 balls and 94 off 29 to power India A to 377/9. Sri Lanka A fought via Sahan’s 62 but folded for 311, handing India A the tri-series by 66 runs.